Trapped
by TGRS
Summary: Harry and Ron were not able to make it into The Chambers of Secret to rescue Ginny, but she was able to fight Tom's control once again. What would happen to her with no way out of The Chambers, and what would happened to the world above ground? AU starting in the end of CoS. HP/GW, HG/RW, LL/NL, RL/NT. Smart, eventually OP Ginny. Eventually MOD Harry.
1. Trapped

AN: Slow updates. Thanks Gin110881 for beta-reading.

If there were two things that defined Ginny Weasley, it was her curiosity and her stubbornness. Both earned her a fair share of troubles and rewards.

Among her siblings, she was the only one who shared her dad's curiosity with all things Muggle. Along with being the youngest and only daughter, it ensured her a very special place in his heart. This meant that she had quite a bit of leeway from him whatever it was to get away lightly on punishment or being allowed to use magic in his shed while "assisting" him in his "investigations" of Muggle items.

She loved magic in all its forms. It didn't matter if she was the one casting the spells, watching her parents doing it, just playing with magical toys or tools, reading magical books or watching her mother and twin brothers brewing potions. All magic fascinated her. This was quite unusual for a child growing up in a magical household, but Ginny never pretended she was "normal". In fact, she rather preferred being weird.

This was one of the reasons she was good friends with Luna Lovegood, who was weird even by Ginny's standards. She enjoyed listening to her friend talking about weird creatures and the adventures she had with her dad while searching for them.

It was the same curiosity that drew Ginny to the mysterious talking diary. Her dad had always talked about the dangerous charmed items he ran across in his line of work. Of course, having a house full of children of all ages, many of which prided themselves on their ability to get into all sorts of troubles, he never brought anything home that could be dangerous to his family.

The exposure to a wide range of charmed items of light nature, her curiosity and her belief that her parents had given her the diary, partially enforced by the diaries' Confundus magic, ensured that Ginny never ever suspected the diary's magic was anything other than light in nature.

It was months later, when the attacks started, that she started to suspect Tom of being less than honest. She started to increasingly find herself in places, she didn't remember getting to. Almost every day she noticed a new hole in her memories. However, every time her suspicious grew, every time she fought him for control, she would find herself forgetting those suspicious thoughts and getting confused over why would she even want to fight with her best friend Tom.

Over a period of months, being constantly exposed to the Confundus and Compelling charms as well as being periodically possessed, she started to learn how to fight those effects. Even then, Tom had to overextend himself in his efforts to cause mayhem, before she was able to fight his control.

She seized that opportunity like a drowning witch and threw the diary away in the nearest bathroom and run away. Even much later, while far away from the diary, she still could feel the Compulsion to find and write in it again. Still, she resisted with everything she had, and even could feel the effect fading somewhat as time passed. At least she hoped it did and she didn't imagine it.

And then she heard Harry-Bloody-Potter, of all people, talking about the diary, and she knew, she could never let him have it. Harry was obvious to its true nature and Tom could ensnare him as he did to her. Tom could also tell Harry what she had done under his influence, frame her like he once framed Hagrid. She couldn't face a threat of expulsion, perhaps even Azkaban, the thought of life without magic, the life in which Harry and her family hated her.

Determined to dispose the diary where no one would find it this time, she sneaked into Harry's dormitory and spend some frantic minutes tearing it apart searching for the diary. However, as soon as her hand closed around the diary, she realized that she didn't exactly think it through.

This time she could feel when Tom took over, and she fought him with all she had, but he was just too strong, and he was much more careful with how much time he spent in control to not overextend himself again. He didn't even cast the Memory Charms as often anymore, partially to gloat at her helplessness in her predicament, and partially to preserve his strength.

He was now strong enough, that he could take over any time she tried to tell someone about him. Her knowledge of his foul nature didn't matter anymore. As time went, he became stronger, and Ginny became only weaker. Many would have given up by now, but she did not. She was very stubborn, as her family could attest to.

She didn't spend her time wallowing in self-pity, she spent time learning to hide her thoughts from Tom as well as pulling a small amount of her strength for a decisive strike. Tom bid his time, hid until he was strong enough to take her over, and so could she. Sooner or later an opportunity would arise, and she would take it with both hands.

Much later, at the end of school year, she could feel Tom's excitement grow. She knew for some time now, that it never has been Tom's true intention to get rid of muggleborns. It was just a pastime, a bit of fun for him while he waited for something else.

At first, she thought, he was afraid to make moves with Dumbledore around. But when he didn't make any new moves even after Dumbledore was suspended, she realized it was something else he wanted. While she watched Tom writing her own farewell on the wall of Myrtle's bathroom, she realized, whatever he'd planned was going to happen very soon.

She was filled with determination and tightened her control over her hidden thoughts and powers expecting the decisive battle between them to start any moment now.

For the first time she could recall, Tom closed The Chambers of Secrets behind him. It was very clear that he was not here to summon the Basilisk this time. He took her body to the end of The Chamber at the foot of the statue of Salazar Slytherin. Then asserting his control over her body and magic, he pulled with great force on her strength, making her knees go weak and her mind blank out.

Yet, the part of herself she had hidden deep in her subconsciousness, where Tom never had a reason to look, stayed alert. Unnoticed by Tom, she waited to seize a perfect opportunity to strike back.

She could feel Tom giving her mind and body cursorily observation, to make sure that she was unconscious and her body drained of all of its power. Yet she could feel that his thoughts were not into it. He was confident in his victory, he was already planning and working on five moves ahead, never realizing that the battle was not finished yet.

Just a moment later she could feel Tom leaving her body completely for the first time in weeks. Even with her body drained and her mind unconscious, her body left a small sign of relief after the oppressive spirit left it. Yet Ginny waited, not daring to make any moves. She could feel the diary grasped in her hands. Tom could take control back at any time. This was not the opportunity she was waiting for yet.

It was only moments later that she felt a small breeze move over her body, which soon started to increase in intensity. Her clothes started to flatter and her skin tingled with what she soon realized was magic. Ever so slowly and carefully she left her hidden place in her mind and slowly took barest of controls over herself, just enough to barely crack open one of her eyes to see what was happening.

She was startled and amazed to see that the wind and magic seem to be coming from the diary, slowly building a tornado of power over it. With a bit of a gulp she realized that with as much magic as Tom was releasing for whatever he was doing, he could have spattered her best efforts of taking control back with barely a thought. She didn't imagine that the gap in their power grew so much since he took full control.

Anyone else would have been scared and demotivated to the point of giving up by the realization. But Ginny did not. Tom was expending lots and lots of magic, magic he couldn't use to fight her at the moment. With this in mind, Ginny ever so slowly started to take back full control over her own body.

As soon as her consciousness and control returned over different parts of her body, she realized that she was really tired. No, not tired. She felt beyond exhausted. It felt like breathing was taking more efforts that she had, more than she could master. Ever so slowly she started to spread the reserves of the magic she hid to different parts of her body, lessening the exhaustion somewhat.

It took her more efforts than she'd expected. Restarting her magical core alone took over half of her remaining magic. Without restarting it, she had no way of recovering any of her magic. It may have taken weeks for it to restart on its own, as was common for severe cases of magical exhaustion.

Through all this, she made special efforts to keep her consciousness and magic as far away from the diary as she could. She didn't know if she could keep hidden from Tom for much longer, but the longer he was fooled, the more power he spent and more time she had to recover.

It was, perhaps, a couple of minutes since Tom left her body, that she noticed wisps of magic that formed a tornado over her body started to slowly move to her side and ever so slowly condense into a shape. With a feeling of dread, she realized that Tom was making himself a body. It was one thing to escape from a diary, for all its powers it was simply a book, that could not move on its own. If Tom regained a body, it would be so much harder to escape him.

She was about to have a panic attack, before she noticed that his new body seemed to be ghostly, even more so than ghosts in Hogwarts. As new parts of his body formed, he didn't become any more solid. Instead, it looked like his body was rebuild from the top down. Every moment a little more of the body was formed.

Additionally, as his head formed, she could see an intense concentration on his face and his mouth moving in a chant. He clearly had to actively keep this spell going. For a moment she debated if it was more beneficial to interrupt the spell over attempts of escaping. While undoubtedly, it would piss Tom off immensely. At best, it would just buy her some time while Tom got his strength back from her.

No, her best option was to escape from the diaries influence and recover her strength. If anything, this situation only increased her chances. She could make her move before Tom had finished his ritual. With a bit of luck, he might not be able to concentrate on getting her back under his control for a little while.

She waited until Tom started to regain his knees. Then she reached very carefully with her consciousness to the diary, trying to get a feeling of Tom's state. He was releasing enormous amounts of magic for a while now, and she wanted to know if there were any other stages to the spell to make his form solid.

As soon as she mentally touched the diary, she could feel an intense sense of concentration as well as nearly overwhelming feeling of exhaustion. There was no way Tom was up to any other powerful magic after this spell was done. He was greatly overextending his magic as it was. She wondered for a moment if he perhaps miscalculated the amount of magic he needed, but she didn't dwell on the thought for long. This was her moment!

As soon as she retreated from the diary, she firmly grasped all of her body control and magic, not caring if Tom noticed. She had to prevent Tom from getting in at any cost. Both of her eyes flew wide open and she set up sharply. She still could feel exhaustion in every muscle and bone, but she was running on adrenaline and magic now, exhaustion was but a distant thought.

She could see Tom's face twitch in surprise, before setting back into concentration with some anger lines on his face, but he didn't make any attempts to talk to her or take control back. Encouraged by it, she quickly picked herself up from the ground. Giving the diary in her hands barely a glance, she threw it with all her might at the ghostly Tom.

To her disappointment, it harmlessly passed through him disrupting barely a few wisps of magic and momently distorting his form. It didn't seem to interrupt the spell or break Tom's concentration. Without waiting a moment longer, she turned and run in the direction of the exit of The Chamber.

She absentmindedly remembered about Tom locking the doors behind him. Without a moment of hesitation, she turned to the closest of the numerous tunnels, hopping with all her might it wouldn't lead back into The Chamber from the other side. By the time she reached the tunnel, her lungs were already screaming for oxygen and her legs felt like they were made from lead, but she continued running.

Shortly thereafter, she felt Tom's consciousness smash into hers. It made her stumble, but she was able to keep upright and was also able to repel his attack, if just barely. For the exhaustion she felt from him earlier, his attack was surprisingly strong, on the same level she expected him to be for their final battle without that spell he cast.

It was only a few moments later that she felt him smash into her defences again, and again, and again. She quickly realized that she could not keep up running and fighting at the same time. Getting as far away from him as possible was her top priority. The only way she knew how to lower the diary's influence was through distance and separation by time. That was her main goal in this battle, to get as far away from the diary as possible, for as long as possible.

She chose to abandon the defence after creating as many obstacles on his way as possible. Then retreat her consciousness to her body control centre, concentrating on running.

Without her actively defending and repairing the damage it took Tom only a few more smashes before he broke into her head. His anger was palpable. It clearly overrode any of his other senses as he tore at her consciousness and memories without care.

Ginny could no longer feel her legs and black dots were dancing in front of her eyes, but she continued on, left, right, left, right, one foot in front of the other, no stopping, no distractions. Tom may have been stronger, but she was the one in control right now, and he lost his control completely to his anger. Instead of focusing on trying to stop or slow her down, he seems to be focused on letting her know how angry he was with her.

It didn't take him long to regain some of his control and he started to smash through the obstacles she had placed on his way. It was clear who was a master of mental arts between them. She had probably wasted more strength placing those obstacles than it took him to take them down. They barely slowed him down. It was only moments later that she could feel him smash into her control centre.

Although her body long since exhausted its adrenalin fuelled energy, she still kept increasing the distance between them. She was no longer able to run without passing out, so instead she was walking as fast as her body would allow her. Left, right, smash, left, right, smash, left, right, smash, crack, left, smash, crack, right.

When she could not keep him at bay for much longer, she retreated even further. Firmly focusing her control on her legs alone, abandoning the rest of her body. It was only moments later that he smashed through and took firm control of rest of her body.

As soon as he had control of her hands, he started casting spells on her. She absentmindedly thought that she probably should have dropped her wand beforehand. Fortunately, he still seemed to be controlled by his anger, as she could feel him casting range of painful curses on her body. However, since he was controlling most of her body now, it was affecting him more so than herself.

He seemed to realize that too soon enough and turned to his favourite, - memory charms. This time he was neither focused or careful of what he Obliviated. She could feel days and even weeks being erased at a time. Left, right, left, right. She wondered how much of Ginny Weasley would be left after the battle was over.

It was perhaps 20 steps later that Tom finally decided to do something about her mobility by casting a leg locking curse on her, making her smash face first into the ground. For a moment she tried to push forward lying on the floor, but quickly realized it was not possible. She abandoned her legs and pushed with all her might for control of her arms, trying to escape crawling.

It was at this moment that she realized that her strength was nearly gone. She was spent, and there was no way she could continue fighting like this. There was no way she could increase the distance between her and the diary anymore. She had to try to win some more time away from it.

Leaving her body control centre to Tom, she ran into her damaged mind, frantically searching for a solution to her problem. It took her only moments to find the Stupefy spell. It was perfect. With any luck, the curse would make her drop her wand. Without it, Tom would not be able to Enervate her body so easily.

By this point, Tom already undid the Leg Locking curse and was slowly walking her body back. With last of her strength, she took control of her wand hand. Pointing the wand on her own body, she whispered "Stupefy", putting all of her reminding magic behind it. As darkness claimed her, she allowed a small smile to grace her lips, as her body slumped and her wand rolled out of her slack fingers.


	2. Rescue Attempt

**2\. Rescue attempt**

While Ginny fought for her survival, Harry and Ron were visiting Hermione in the Hospital Wing.

"Do you reckon she will be alright?"

"She will be alright Ron, you heard Madam Pomfrey. The Mandrakes are nearly fully grown now."

"I know Harry, but I am worried. What if the heir hurts you next, you are not pureblood, you know? What if he hurts me or my family? We may be pureblood, but we are some of the worst blood traitors out there if you listen to Malfoy."

"Don't listen to him, you know he is an ass. He doesn't know who is behind the attacks. For all we know he will be the next victim."

They grinned at each other but soon realised that something was missing and sadly glanced at their frozen friend. Harry grasped her hand, squeezing it lightly.

"We miss you Hermione, I wish you were here with us."

"I bet she would have figured out who the heir is by now. She is really smart you know? What are you doing Harry?" he asked puzzled seeing Harry 'sniffing' Hermione's hand?

"Ron! Look! She has something in her fist. Looks like a piece of paper."

"Bloody hell mate! What are you doing? You are going to break her hand. Move over, let me see."

With difficulty and some time, they were able to coarse the piece of paper from Hermione's stony fist with just a few tears. They unfolded and spread it in front of them and read it right there on Hermione's hospital bed.

"Morgana's saggy tits! She totally figured the monster out!" exclaimed the redhead boy.

"Tsh, be quite Ron" said the other boy, looking around suspiciously to see if anyone heard them.

It took only a second for Ron to catch up on what his friend tried to tell him, and with frightened expression he joined in the look out.

"Do you reckon that is why she was attacked? Because she figured out what the monster is?" he whispered in very quiet voice.

Even in absolute silence of the hospital wing Harry could barely hear Ron's question. "Yeah" he answered just as quietly.

After some time with no suspicious sounds or movements they moved back shoulder to shoulder, taking comfort in each other's presence, and returned their attention back to the torn page from a book.

"It totally fits. Look, 'spiders flee in its presence', 'spiders fear Basilisks above anything else'. Bloody hell mate, it is a snake, no wonder no one could hear it other than you. You are a Parcelmouth."

While their fears abated somewhat with no immediate attacks from the heir, they still whispered to each other as quietly as possible to avoid attracting attention to themselves.

"It says 'Basilisk's gaze is deadly. Meeting its gaze is sure to end the Witch or Wizard's life', how come no one died in the attacks?" asked Harry.

They spent some time brainstorming the puzzle before Ron exclaimed "Reflection!" Remembering that they supposed to be quiet, he lowered his head and looked around nervously again before whispering to Harry what he figured out.

"McGonagall said that Hermione had a mirror in her hand when they found her, remember? I bet she used it to look around the corners."

"And Colin was holding up his camera when he was petrified"

"And Justin saw it through Nearly Headless Nick"

"And Mrs. Noris through a reflection from the dump floor"

"Harry, we have to tell teachers, they can capture the heir and take care of the basilisk"

"Yeah, let's go"

They just stepped outside of Hospital Wing when the voice of Professor McGonagall sounded from the walls, urging all students to return to their dormitories and for professors to meet near the second-floor girl bathroom.

With a quick glance at each other, they changed their route and started to make their way to the second floor.

As they arrived, most of the professors were already at the scene quietly discussing something. Harry and Ron hid behind a corner trying to listen in to discover what happened. The recent resolution, to come to teachers with information about the basilisk, far from their minds.

Soon thereafter the rest of the teachers arrived.

"So, what is this about?" a cheerful voice of Professor Lockhart asked, completely missing tense and somber atmosphere among his colleagues.

"There has been another attack. This time a student was taken into The Chamber of Secrets itself, as you can see" said Professor McGonagall indicating at the wall that other professors were looking at.

"Oh"

"Do we know who was taken?" this time the question came from Professor Snape.

"Ginny Weasley"

Harry and Ron froze hearing the news that Ginny was taken into The Chamber.

Unaware of the pair of ears droppers' teachers continue to discuss situation and what to do.

In the end, they decided to leave search and rescue of the missing student to the most (in-) "competent" teacher, - Professor Lockhart.

All other teachers were to focus on rounding up and securing remaining students in their dormitories.

As soon as the professors left to do their assigned tasks, Harry and Ron stepped from behind the corner and starred numbly at the new message left by the heir.

"Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever"

Perhaps if they were less shocked by the events, they would have wondered how the professors determined the victim from such cryptic message with other students still scattered through the castle.

Harry was the first one to come out of the shock.

"Come on Ron, we have to tell Lockhart what we know" it took quite a few tugs on the arm to get his best friend attention. "Right! Let's go."

Ron just managed to take a few steps before Harry abruptly stopped making Ron to do a half spin from the hand still on his shoulder.

"Harry, what it is, can you hear it?" he frantically whispered, eyes daring that way and that way, ears straining to hear the smallest of noises.

"Myrtle" his mate breathed out staring at the doors of the girl's bathroom.

"What? Is it in the Myrtle's bathroom?" he asked in a slightly high-pitched whisper, making his friend turn to him.

"McGonagall said 50 years ago a girl was killed. What if she is still here?" a look of comprehension drew in Ron's eyes.

"Myrtle, right! Listen Harry, you go ask Myrtle and I will go grab Lockhart"

"You a-are not coming with me?" this time it was Harry's voice that turned high-pitched.

At any other time, Ron would have found the face of pure terror on Harry's face hilarious. Today, every minute wasted was another minute his little sister was in danger.

"You will be fine. If she knows anything that can help Ginny, you are the best person to ask."

Without waiting for a response from his best friend he continued on his way to the Defence Classroom. He couldn't blame Harry for being terrified. Myrtle was hard to deal with on a good day, more so if you were Harry Potter. For some reason, she has a creepy obsession with him.

Albus Dumbledore was having a good day. After weeks of suspension he finally was reinstalled as the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Additionally, his longtime opponent - Lucius Malfoy, lost his seat at the Hogwarts Board of Governors. A third family to do so ever since he became the Headmaster.

This was going to alleviate some of the pressure Albus was feeling in his position. It was centuries since Hogwarts enjoyed true independence from the Ministry of Magic.

Back then the Black family controlled both the Ministry and the Hogwarts. They were attempting to consolidate all of the influences and political powers under a single ruler from the House of Black. Tearing down centuries of scriptures, rules and laws that separated the Ministry of Magic and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the process. Some of those laws were written by The Four Founders themselves!

This led to an appalling fall in standards of education. Now the curriculum and access to knowledge was controlled by the politicians rather than educators. Less educated population was easier to control, which suited politicians and old families just fine. Private tutors or oversea schools could always take care of any gaps in knowledge of their children, too bad only rich or well-connected could afford it.

Being an exceptionally powerful and talented wizard, Albus experienced this first hand. Hogwarts was never much of a challenge to him. Had he been any less determined to be someone great, he would have fallen into the same laziness trap that many other talented witches and wizards fallen into. Instead he took his education into his own hands. Together with his childhood friend – Gellert, they pushed each other to the new highs in mastery of magic.

They, or course, disagreed on many things, especially later in life. However, it was never a question that either would have come as far in their understanding of magic and its mastery without each other. No doubts, with guidance of a competent teacher and challenging learning environment, they would have come even further.

Unfortunately, falling standards were not the end of it. Many great magical subjects and spells were banned or lost due to some well-connected 'dimwits' finding them hard. Sometimes, whole subjects were classified as Dark Magic and banned for no other reason, than to punish a particularly demanding teacher.

Not to say that the Wizarding World stagnated since the "glory days" as many would say. The population now was 10 times greater that it was at the time of the Blacks, and 100 times greater that it was when The Four Founders were still alive.

Some fields disappeared while others spread. Back in the days, the field of Charms was just a novelty, few charms existed that exists today. Ever fewer were used in the day to day life. People preferred more permanent solutions to many of their daily problems via Rituals, Rites, Runes, Elemental Magic, Blood Magic, Infusions, Crafting and Summoning to name a few.

New findings still happened regularly, Albus made quite a few new discoveries and contributions himself, as did Gellert, if in different and less humane areas. Unfortunately, the senseless bans continued to this day, offsetting some of the progress made by many of the new discoveries.

The mortality rates among the best and brightest was also much higher, as an understanding of magic was lower. Therefore, many discoveries were done by accident rather than through understanding. Many accidents, unfortunately, fatal.

Case in point, one of the brightest witches in recent years – Pandora Lovegood. He was looking forward to introducing new subject into Hogwarts curriculum under her tutelage. She was trying to rediscover the Basics of Enchanting when an unfortunate accident resulted in her demise.

The knowledge of Enchanting and many others were lost around 650 years ago during particularly turbulent times in Wizarding World. Muggle's experienced the plague of black death, the wizarding world fated worse.

It was believed the plague was started by a powerful group of Asian necromancers. Wizards and witches got infected and died faster than their muggle counterparts, with additional "benefits". The bodies of the magical victims turned into a particularly vicious type of Fire Inferi. They tended to wonder over huge territories, searching and infecting others with magic. There was no known way to destroy them.

Fortunately, the body of Inferi was not immune to its own magical flames. They only lasted as long, as the magical core of the infected victim could protect its body from the pyre. For most it took months, for some – years. Many scholars believed, that the act of Witch Burning, centuries later, was linked to the muggle records of Fire Inferi. The witches and wizards wondered freely those days; the Statute of Secrecy was not yet in place.

The Wizarding World came very close to extinction back then, only those behind the most powerful wards surviving. In many areas of the world, the magical community had to start from the scratch, with no books and no wizards surviving to teach the new generation of muggle born.

Remarkably, some of the muggles not only survived the plague infection, but developed immunity to it. Which over the years spread though both muggle and magical families, making the repeat of the plague all but impossible. Situations like this proved to Albus that both worlds needed the other, as no documented magician survived once infected.

At that moment he was interrupted from his mussing by heavy steps and deep panting. Blinking he realized that he got lost in his thoughts once more. Who knows how long was he standing in front of the Hogwarts Gates without entering? It seems it was time to offload some of his thoughts and memories into pensive once more.

Focusing on the source of the sound he was not surprised to see Professor Lockhart dragging his overflowing trunk muggle style in hurry. Every couple of steps he will stop to pick up items that fallen off. It took significant efforts on Albus part to keep the professor in the school once troubles with The Chamber started. The cowardly professor tried to run after each attack and sometimes in between attacks too.

With a wave of his hand the Hogwarts Gates spread open, allowing the Headmaster entrance into the school grounds. Short moments later he was within communicating distance from the fleeing professor.

"Gilderoy! What seem to be the trouble my dear Professor?"

At hearing the voice from behind him, Lockhart instinctively spun in place to face the thread. In the process falling over his trunk. The following 10 seconds Albus watched half amused half exacerbated as the professor attempted to grasp his wand. The wand stubbornly refused to cooperate and continued to slip from the frantic fingers.

Finally, the professor managed to get good hold of the wand before hastily pointing it at Hogwarts. It took a few moments for the man to process what he saw, before he spun around and pointed his wand in Albus's general direction.

"Dumbledore?"

"Indeed"

"You are back?"

"Indeed. After hearing about a student being taken into The Chamber of Secrets, The Board of Governors deemed it necessary to reinstall me to my previous position"

"Good, good" the man muttered while frantically looking whichever way, searching for an escape, no doubt.

Plastering a disappointed look at his face Albus looked sternly at his Defense Professor.

"And what is this Gilderoy? Surely, you were not thinking of leaving at such crucial time. The school needs someone of your expertise now more than ever. Miss Weasley needs you."

"Ah.. You see.. I am.. I am.. My Mother!"

"Oh?"

"My mother, s..she is really sick!"

"Truly?" he asked with a fake surprise.

"Yes, yes, see I need to be going" at this he ran past headmaster and Apparated as soon as he crossed the wards leaving a shoe behind.

After watching the Professor's retreat through the still open gate, Albus called out "Tully".

A soft pop indicated the arrival of a house elf.

"Headmaster Dumbildore sir is back! What can Tully do for the great Dumbildore sir?"

"Tully, it seems that Professor Lockhart had to suddenly leave. I do not believe he is coming back. Please ensure that any items he left behind will be send to him." he indicated at the trunk left behind.

"Of course, Dumbildore sir, Tully will be doing that" with a click of her fingers both trunk and the house elf disappeared.

Sighing at need to look for a new Defense Professor once again, Albus continued the walk to his office. The school appeared deserted, with only portraits whispering and welcoming him back. Hopefully, all of the students were secured in their dormitories.

Once he reached his office, he sent out four Patronuses. Knowing that his Heads of Houses would be on their way shortly, he went to one of the blank walls of his office. Taking a quick look around to ensure no one was watching, he started to whisper a spell, accompanying it were series of complex wand movements. It took over 30 seconds before he finished casting the spell.

As he finished, a small previously hidden door appeared, no bigger than an average desk drawer. With anticipation he pulled it open and let out a sigh of relief discovering content untouched. Carefully lifting a bowl from the hidden space, he placed it on his desk, before casting another extremely complex spell to hide the door once more.

Once the secret compartment was secured, he walked around his desk and tiredly sat in his comfortable chair. Then pushed his hand into the bowl and popped a couple of Lemon Drops into his mouth, sucked on them for a bit and then sighed with satisfaction. It was good to be back.

It took only few more minutes before first of his summons arrived.

"Severus" he greeted warmly.

"Headmaster" was a frosty reply. "All Slytherin students are accounted for. The entrance was sealed and Professor Vector and Professor Hooch are keeping an eye on the house" he continued without prompting.

"Ah! Very well" he replied jovially and enjoyed the distasteful frown that briefly crossed one of his most trusted professors face. It was fun annoying Severus with his eccentrics.

Deep panting signaled arrival of next professor.

"Pomona, it is good to see you again" he greeted as soon as she entered.

"Albus, I am so grateful that you are back. The castle was not the same without you. Kids will also feel much safer knowing that you have returned" she replied.

He had to smile at that same old Pomona. One of the kindest and most caring people he knew. He could also see Severus rolling his eyes in the back, which added twinkle to his own eyes in amusement.

"Thank you for your kind words Professor. Are all Hufflepuffs accounted for and safe?"

"Yes, of course. Had them all rounded up in no time. Charity and Silvanus are with them"

"Excellent!" he exclaimed only to observe as his vertically challenged Professor arrived.

"Filius" he greeted.

"Welcome back Albus. It is good to see you back. Most awful situation with Miss Weasley. All of my Ravens are accounted for and safely in their dorms watched by Aurora and Argus" he greeted back in his typical cheerful way if a bit subdued due to situation at hand.

"Most excellent. 3 for 3 so far. Let's hope Minerva was able to round up all of the remaining Gryffindors as well" he responded

"Fat chance of that" he heard Severus murmur under his breath, making other professors roll their eyes at his clear dislike of the house. Not that he was necessary incorrect, as the Gryffindors tended to be the most handful of all other houses.

It took couple more minutes before panting Professor McGonagall burst through the door.

"Albus, few of my students are missing" she said in a way of greeting, making Severus smirk in his self-satisfied manner being proved correct.

"Most troubling, how many and whom?" he asked calmly.

"Three. Ms Weasley, obviously, as well as Mr Potter and Mr Ron Weasley" she started before being interrupted.

"Of course, that spoiled brat Potter and his sidekick" Severus interrupted before being stopped by angry glare from Minerva as well as his disappointed look.

"Not the time Severus" he held his glaze for a few seconds before he averted his eyes.

Satisfied he turned to his latest arrival, "Please continue Minerva". She took a few moments to regather her thoughts before proceeding.

"Their classmates said that they went to visit Ms Granger in the Hospital Wing, and Poppy confirmed that they came by before the announcement. However, they aren't anywhere to be found either in the Hospital Wing or Griffindor tower or anywhere on the way between them."

"I left Rubeus and Sybill in the tower. They will send message if the boys come back as well as will prevent rest of the Weasley from going searching for their sister. The Weasley twins were most difficult to keep inside" she informed them, making Pomora flitch in sympathy.

"Very well. Now that we know that remaining students are safe, we can start searching the castle. Remember that the heir and the monster are still on the loose, so wands our and be alert. We will first examine the message one more time in case some clues were missed, then start searching castles floor by floor" he told them the plan before getting up and leaving the office with rest of the teachers following.

They were just coming to the fourth floor when they heard a faint banging sound from below. Albus raised his hand to stop the rest of the Professors.

"It sounds like it is coming from second floor" Pomona whispered.

Albus nodded in agreement before waving his want in intricate pattern over the group.

"Silencing and advanced Muffliato spell. Our approach should be quite now" he explained before beckoning them to slowly follow him.

As they got closer, they could hear a bit of laughter coming in between bangs. The professors were quick to identify voice of Ron Weasley, however professors continue their slow progressions, in case it was some sort of trap.

When they got close Albus stopped and pressed the rest of the teachers to the wall before running series of detection spells. Once he was confident that only Mr Weasley was present in near vicinity, he dared to take a quick look around the corner to where the noise was coming from. What he saw, gave him a pause.

Blinking couple of times to ensure that he really did see it, he carefully stepped from around the corner while absentmindedly cancelling silencing charms from himself.

"Mr Weasley, can you please stop the ruckus?" he asked in mild tone.

However, the response he got was not what he expected. The youngest Weasley boy just turned to him with blank look in his eyes and big smile on his face, before continuing banging suits of armor hands against its torso while releasing giggles as if it was the funniest thing he had ever done.

Moving toward the boy with quick steps he started casting range of detection and curse dispelling spells over the boy to no avail. Giving up, he cast a Petrificus Totalus over the boy before gently lowering him to the ground.

Turning to his colleagues who gathered behind him while he worked, he started giving instructions.

"Severus and Filius, please get Poppy, whatever have happened to Mr Weasley is not something other student could have done" he gave them serious look, making it clear that matter was serious.

"Do you think it was the heir who cursed Mr Weasley? And what of Mr Potter, you hardly see them apart?" asked Minerva as soon as other professors left to bring the Matron.

"I don't know. I haven't seen affects like this before. It looked similar to improperly cast overpowered Confundus Charm, however I was neither able to detect or dispel whatever is affecting Mr Weasley" he said while tiredly rubbing his eyes under the glasses.

It took couple of minutes for the Matron to come running with Filius, Severus and Irma close behind. She went to work on the student without even pause to greed the rest of the Professors. None took offence at that, knowing her and how she operated for many years or decades in some cases. It took her only a minute of frantic casting to identify the problem.

"Headmaster, we need to take Mr Weasley to St Mungo right away. He was Obliviated. Whoever did it, tried to wipe all of his memories. Hopefully it is not too late and he can avoid permanent damage" she told him in angry voice. Clearly not impressed with whoever harmed one of her charges under her watch.

"Of course, Poppy, I would temporary unlock the Floo in Gilderoy's office for you, it is the closest"

As the Matron and Librarian moved in direction of DADA office with Weasley boy floating behind them, he indicated for rest of the professors to follow him as he recast silencing spell over the group.

The rest of the walk to the mysterious message was uneventful, however as soon as he started casting detection spells, he identified human signature in the Myrtle's bathroom.

"Minerva, there is someone in the bathroom" he indicated for the Professor to take point while rest assembled in semicircle behind her.

With a few calming breaths the Professor entered the bathroom carefully only to call a few moments later.

"Albus, it is Mr Potter, he doesn't look good"

Hearing that, Albus quickly entered the bathroom only to see his student sitting on the floor, hugging his knees while slightly rocking back and forward. His unseeing eyes staring straight ahead seemingly unaware of the company.

"Severus" he said one word before Severus and Flitwick took off in direction of the recently departed Matron, knowing what he wanted from them.

Unnoticed by the Professors, as soon as first detection charms magic washed over the bathroom the slight protrusion from one of the faucets in the shape of snake melted back into the faucet. At the same time in another part of the castle a protrusion in the shape of Snake eye appeared on one of the portraits that depicted a cave. The floors in front of the portrait had a deep layer of dust, as this part of castle, dedicated in the past to Ritualistic magic, had been walled off from the rest of the castle even before Dumbledore was a student here.


End file.
